It has been a while since I have posted. I have continued to participate in Online Bible Studies at the Proverbs 31 Ministries, but for some reason nothing pushed me to write – until now….

Our current Proverbs 31 Bible Study is “Am I Messing Up My Kids?” by Lysa TerKeurst, which will run 6 weeks from July 13, 2014 until August 23, 2014. Our Memory Verse for this week is Psalms 23:3 “He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.”

Well, I woke up the morning of July 13th energized and ready to participate in this new study. I then remembered that I needed to drop my daughter off at a Bike-A-Thon at 8:00am about 30 minutes away. We were ready to go by 7:30 and headed to the garage for the car. As we approached, I raised the overhead door with my remote and lo and behold – we could see the side door to the garage standing open! I turned to my almost 17 year old only child and asked her if she had left the door open upon her return from bike riding on Saturday night. Keep in mind that just last week her dad found the side door to the house unlocked when he returned home from work. She explained to us that she was taking her bike and thought she was coming back to the house to get her bike lock. Instead she found the lock already on her bike and forgot to go back and lock the door. Since it was the first time, we told her to be careful and check the door after locking it to make sure.

This time, however, she turns to me in the front seat of the car and with a straight face said “No Mom – not me”. To which I responded that both her dad and I have a remote to the garage and never use the door – how can she explain the door being open? She continued to insist that it was not her. I should have let this discussion go and continue on our way. But Surprise, surprise my anger kicked in and I promptly told her she was lying and I left the car to go back into the house. My daughter follows with a comment “You are crazy! I am going for a walk!” She then proceeds to past me and starts walking down the street.

I decided to let her cool off and went into the house. By 10:00 am she had not returned nor called home. Since my daughter has had a cell phone since Junior High, we purchased her phone from a company that sells parent friendly phones that can be tracked via GPS. I sent off a request to locate her phone – which was found 10 blocks away in the park. I chose to call her at that point – we discussed the issue – she returned home, one hour later.

I decided it was time to get started on reading the book for this Bible Study. Later, after reading the first five chapters of “Am I Messing Up My Kids?”, I decided it was time to sit down with my daughter to discuss the blow up and a better way to handle out tempers. I started the conversation by apologizing for blowing up at her. She explained that she was almost 17 and did not like the way I spoke to her that morning. I told her regardless, we are responsible for her well being until she is 18 and will not tolerate her stomping off for hours. It is not a safe habit to get off into – anything could happen to her.

While we were talking, I received a text from her dad who was out – it said “The police has posted a bulletin that a person in handcuffs is at large on the East side, The Police has advised people to stay indoors until the all clear is given.” I turned to my daughter and showed her the text. It was priceless to see the expression on her face!

Then she recovered and said – “You know you have a temper and I know you have been working on it. I actually believed things were getting better until today. Please continue to work on your temper and I will continue to work on my response to it.”.